Riverdale’s New Josie And The Pussycats Slay In These First Look Photos

September 12, 2016

Stacey

Forget everything you think you know about Josie and the Pussycats, because there are new cats in town. As Riverdale begins filming, the singing trio shared kick-ass pics on Twitter. Ashleigh Murray (Josie McCoy), Asha Bromfield (Melody Valentine), and Hayleau (Valerie Brown) are the new faces of the Archie characters. Seriously, who wouldn’t want to jam out with them?

In the comics, animated TV series, and 2001 film, the only one of the trio who was African-American was Valerie—Josie was a Caucasian redhead and Melody was a Caucasian blonde. But Riverdale is changing it up and we are here 👏 for 👏 it 👏. I’m not one to shout “Yaas, kween!” at the top of my lungs, but I’m getting the urge now after seeing the girls in full attire.

Riverdale is already winning the representation game. Besides casting an all-black girl band for Josie and the Pussycats, Kevin Keller (played by Casey Cott) is the first openly gay character in the Archie universe, and Jughead Jones (Cole Sprouse) was revealed to be asexual in Jughead No. 4. It’s unclear how Jughead’s sexuality will be addressed, but Sprouse did admit at the CW Upfronts in May, “I think that’s the kind of representation that’s desperately needed within modern media,” and goes on to add “that kind of sexual representation is really lacking” right now.

Regardless of how Jughead will be handled on the show, Riverdale is definitely doing Josie and the Pussycats right. Is it 2017 yet?!